Ready to get spooked? We're bringing you a chilling conversation with the Candle Lighters, Fremont's community beacon since 1969. Trisha and Jeff the brains behind this non-profit, share their journey from being a small fundraising group for a new YMCA building to an organization that's 100 strong. We delve into the spirit behind their operations and their unique approach to community donations. Prepare for an eye-opening journey behind the scenes of a beloved community organization.
Get set to step into the mind of Jeff, a graphic artist, cartoonist, and an integral part of the Candle Lighters. His creativity adds a spark to the organization, and he shares his experiences working there and his role as a Cartoonist in Residence at the Charles Schultz Museum. Hear Trisha talk about thrilling volunteer opportunities and their ghostly haunted house project. She lets us in on how they balance fun and safety, creating immersive experiences for visitors while fostering a sense of community among volunteers.
Hold onto your seats as we take you through the eerie details of creating the Candle Lighters' haunted house, the longest running haunt in California. Trisha and Jeff reveal their creative process - from inventive props to chilling effects and animatronics - all designed to give visitors a unique, hair-raising experience every year. They also share the joy of their annual Halloween event, a family-friendly affair that has become a tradition in the Fremont area. This is a conversation filled with heart, tradition, and a whole lot of spookiness, not to be missed!
Learn more about the Ghost House here.
Air
Fremont Bank has been serving our community for over 60 year. Find out more about them in Episode 104 or on their website here.
Get 20% off on your first order at Minuteman Press in Fremont. Let them know you heard about them on the podcast.
Don't miss the Ohlone College Flea Market each month on the 2nd Saturday.
If you are interested in supporting the podcast, please reach out to us at thefremontpodcast@gmail.com, or you can contact us here.
The Ohlone College Flea Market takes place this month on April 13th. Don't miss it.
Fremont Bank is our newest sponsor. They have been partnering with and supporting people and small businesses for over six decades.
Also, Petrocelli Homes has been a key sponsor for the Fremont Podcast almost from the beginning. If you are looking for help or advice about buying or selling a home, or if you are looking for a realtor, get in touch with Petrocelli Homes on Niles Blvd in Niles.
Additionally, Banter Bookshop is the best little bookshop in Fremont. They are a sponsor of that podcast. And we are excited to have them as a partner.
If you are in need of services for design or printing, check out Minutemen Press in Irvington. They have been serving the community for over 20 years, and they stand strong by their work and service.
Intro and Outro voiceovers made by Gary Williams. Check out garywilliams.org.
This episode was edited by Andrew C.
Scheduling and background was done by Sara S.
This is a Muggins Media Podcast.
...Ready to get spooked? We're bringing you a chilling conversation with the Candle Lighters, Fremont's community beacon since 1969. Trisha and Jeff the brains behind this non-profit, share their journey from being a small fundraising group for a new YMCA building to an organization that's 100 strong. We delve into the spirit behind their operations and their unique approach to community donations. Prepare for an eye-opening journey behind the scenes of a beloved community organization.
Get set to step into the mind of Jeff, a graphic artist, cartoonist, and an integral part of the Candle Lighters. His creativity adds a spark to the organization, and he shares his experiences working there and his role as a Cartoonist in Residence at the Charles Schultz Museum. Hear Trisha talk about thrilling volunteer opportunities and their ghostly haunted house project. She lets us in on how they balance fun and safety, creating immersive experiences for visitors while fostering a sense of community among volunteers.
Hold onto your seats as we take you through the eerie details of creating the Candle Lighters' haunted house, the longest running haunt in California. Trisha and Jeff reveal their creative process - from inventive props to chilling effects and animatronics - all designed to give visitors a unique, hair-raising experience every year. They also share the joy of their annual Halloween event, a family-friendly affair that has become a tradition in the Fremont area. This is a conversation filled with heart, tradition, and a whole lot of spookiness, not to be missed!
Learn more about the Ghost House here.
Air
Fremont Bank has been serving our community for over 60 year. Find out more about them in Episode 104 or on their website here.
Get 20% off on your first order at Minuteman Press in Fremont. Let them know you heard about them on the podcast.
Don't miss the Ohlone College Flea Market each month on the 2nd Saturday.
If you are interested in supporting the podcast, please reach out to us at thefremontpodcast@gmail.com, or you can contact us here.
The Ohlone College Flea Market takes place this month on April 13th. Don't miss it.
Fremont Bank is our newest sponsor. They have been partnering with and supporting people and small businesses for over six decades.
Also, Petrocelli Homes has been a key sponsor for the Fremont Podcast almost from the beginning. If you are looking for help or advice about buying or selling a home, or if you are looking for a realtor, get in touch with Petrocelli Homes on Niles Blvd in Niles.
Additionally, Banter Bookshop is the best little bookshop in Fremont. They are a sponsor of that podcast. And we are excited to have them as a partner.
If you are in need of services for design or printing, check out Minutemen Press in Irvington. They have been serving the community for over 20 years, and they stand strong by their work and service.
Intro and Outro voiceovers made by Gary Williams. Check out garywilliams.org.
This episode was edited by Andrew C.
Scheduling and background was done by Sara S.
This is a Muggins Media Podcast.
...I'm Gary Williams. Your reviews help other people find this podcast. If you would please leave a review on iTunes.
Speaker 2:The weird part about candlelighters is we're never, ever giving money, so we are not a cash run organization. When we gift things, we get you hard assets that we need so refrigerators, mattresses, chairs.
Speaker 3:So people can actually look at it and say this particular item or these particular features are things that were given to us by the candlelighters.
Speaker 1:Coming to you straight from Fremont, california. This is the Fremont podcast, dedicated to telling the stories of the past and present of the people and places of the city of Fremont, one conversation at a time.
Speaker 4:Hello, Fremont.
Speaker 1:Ricky told me to snap a pine cone and tell you this is episode 90 of the Fremont podcast. Now here's your host, Ricky B.
Speaker 3:We are in a dark, dark room with a bunch of lit candles in the back of Jack's brewery. No, just kidding. We are in Jack's brewery there's no candles, but I'm with the candlelighters, or at least a couple candlelighters. So Trisha has been on the podcast before, because Trisha and Brian are the owners of Jack's brewery and you're also part of the candlelighters.
Speaker 2:I am. I have the honor of being the president this year. Oh, very cool, very excited, yeah it was kind of cool when I was.
Speaker 3:When I found out we were doing the interview with the candlelighters and your name came up, I was like wait a minute.
Speaker 2:I know her From other things. From other things, yeah.
Speaker 3:And we run into each other all the time around town at events and we were just talking about that. So that's cool. And, jeff, this is the first time I've met you. Now that we have met, I realized that we probably should have met a very long time ago. Yeah, jeff, is it Shinkle?
Speaker 4:Shinkle, that's right, your last name.
Speaker 3:Awesome. And what is your current role or position at the candlelighters?
Speaker 4:I'm the assistant site person this year. Which site is responsible for getting all of our trailers and all of that stuff on property and lining up things like fire inspections?
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 4:Food for the work parties and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:He's so much more important and cooler than that, but I always feel like the title doesn't justify what Jeff is capable of doing. Jeff and I were both co-site people. The entirety of COVID.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:So we couldn't open and couldn't open, and couldn't open and we were just partners in crime in the attempt to open and then backing off. And then, should we back? Can we talk to the city about? No, we can't open yet. So we were you've been site a long time, a very long time.
Speaker 2:He's been site a long time. In fact, the way that the organization works, the site person would then become president and technically, jeff was site and I was his assistant and he was supposed to be president but because of COVID and some of the things that happened, he's needs to be with his other organization.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Niles Rotary.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you for that, but we we're lucky to have him at all, Because I know that that's a huge commitment and that kind of just bumped me up in a surprising fashion, you jumped wrong or whatever it is. Yeah, that's awesome, but yeah, we're really, we're lucky. Jeff's been at this a while and I just we're really, our organization's about 100 people, okay, wow 100 people.
Speaker 3:So I want to talk about candlelighters. I was under the impression, for whatever reason, at some point I talked to somebody and I was under the impression that it was a newer organization, but that is not true. So, candlelighters, when did candlelighters? When did candlelighters start?
Speaker 4:Started in 1969. The intention was it was going to be a one year thing. They were trying. There was. There was five ladies who started it came up with the idea as a fundraiser one year to build a new YMCA building and the YMCA building still exists. It's not the YMCA anymore, over on Farwell, right across the street from Irvington High. So they put all their eggs in one basket. The ghost house was up where Ohone College is now. There was an old I think it was a winery ruins that were up there and they you know very creepy old trees and all that stuff and they went all out. They had they flew in the star. There was a. There was a television show back then called Dark Shadows which was a soap opera on ABC
Speaker 4:and all of us school kids back then would run home. So yeah, they flew Barnabas Collins up to sign autographs. They picked him up in a hearse and from Oakland International and drove him here.
Speaker 3:That is yeah.
Speaker 2:So it was. It was really cool.
Speaker 3:Attention to theme was just fine, and it was just five. Ladies like we need to raise money, yeah, and they've got their friends and their husbands and community members and made it happen.
Speaker 2:So I still have two original members.
Speaker 4:Yeah, still two original members. They're still part of the oh my goodness, that's cool.
Speaker 3:So that is that was. That was the just a.
Speaker 4:We're going to do a one year raise money and and then they had a big gala dance kind of thing, auction, fundraiser sort of thing, and then the ghost house and the admission, I believe was a dollar. Was it a dollar?
Speaker 2:It was like it could have even been lower than that. Wow, I can't.
Speaker 4:I think you could get a discount in a group to like a quarter or something. But that said they raised what it took to build that building in that year and it was a big deal.
Speaker 2:Wow, and I think they raised like a lot of it. And then I think that's kind of why they thought, well, maybe we should do it again, because it needed it needed more, a little bit more, that might be, true? Yeah, I'm not sure I'm like the last person that would know all the details. Yeah. I was born in 70.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 2:I'm a little bit behind on the what happened in 1969 part.
Speaker 3:I know that that's the way some I won't say a lot of things happened, but I know that it's. It's reminding me of the way that Airbnb started and I know this is a complete rabbit trail. But if there's an NPR podcast called how I built that and there was I think it was two or three guys that moved to Silicon Valley because they wanted to be entrepreneurs and they had no idea what their business concept was or what they were going to do. But they wanted to be entrepreneurs and they got to a point where they couldn't pay rent for their apartment. But it was at the same time there was a big convention here in the bay and all the hotels were booked up and there were still people wanting to come to this convention and they couldn't find a place to stay. And these guys are like we have some air mattresses and some rooms in our apartment. Why don't we just rent that out? So they built a whole website just to rent air mattresses to these people Airbnb, airbnb, airbnb, yeah.
Speaker 3:And then, and then they and it was a one time thing they're like we need to pay rent this month. So let's create a website, we're good at that, let's not just do it on Craigslist. And they rented them out and it paid rent, and then they found themselves in the same position a few months later. So they're like let's do it again. And then they eventually got friends that were interested. And well, if you guys were successful at doing that, we'll, we have. We have air mattresses as we could do it, and the whole story is very fascinating and maybe I'll. If Andrew decides to leave this part on the podcast, I'll put it. I'll link it in our show notes to what episode that was that I listened to, but it sounds the same way.
Speaker 4:It's like we'll do it one time We'll raise money. See, in my mind right now I'm thinking scare B&B and we just let people stay in the ghost house every night for the year.
Speaker 3:Oh my, gosh, that is. That's a brilliant idea. You earn a year, folks.
Speaker 2:We get all asked all the time like they're like, okay, so you love Halloween? I'm all I sure do, and I legit do before, way before I even got joined candlelighters. But when we're done, people are like, oh, you should make it a Christmas house. And I'm always like, oh, we could, but we would need a whole nother organization. I always thought if anybody wanted to spin off, we could.
Speaker 3:we could you have no idea? You have no idea. So 20 minutes ago, before we started recording this podcast, I said to him, before I knew what candlelighters was, I thought I would love to turn that house into a Christmas house and I wonder what would be the opportunity. And he goes. You know what I brought?
Speaker 4:that Tell me what you said. I suggested it once and the the icy, cold stairs. I got back and said, oh, I'm not going to go there. He's like I'm never saying to suggest that again.
Speaker 3:Well then I said to him, I said what if a completely separate organization came in and said we'll work with you. When you guys are done, we'll set up a Christmas house? And he was like who knows, it could happen.
Speaker 2:So that's our spin off plan and you just brought it up, so spin off plan for later. We're going to spin off. No it's, it's, it's the perfect location for a ghost house and, as long as you know, we would have to do some things to make Christmas. But I honestly, it always um. It appeals to me because it's a carriage house. So, it was always meant to be more barn-like.
Speaker 2:And because of that it has. Like you think about even a Victorian child at the time would be like creepy barn, you know that's where spiders live and horses go and there's not a lot of people, although, remind me, the ghost house is officially haunted.
Speaker 3:According to some of our members, it is but it started off at Aloni College, or at least the location where Aloni College is now, so you know. Help me get from where it was in Aloni College that first year to now the carriage house.
Speaker 4:So I am, and I'm probably not the best at this. I can only tell you what I know, that I remember. So it was there for, I think, only maybe one year, when it was at what, where we meet in Rotary now Washington West, was a Capwell store. Back then that shopping center it was in one of the empty stores there and I think they did it there a few years In fact.
Speaker 4:The first time I went to it, which was 74, 75, it was there, and then eventually they made their way to where the site is now.
Speaker 3:So how long have they been at the carriage house?
Speaker 4:Gosh, I'm going to guess 30 years, maybe almost 30, yeah.
Speaker 2:But it's had lots of improvements done to it. I had some of our older members telling me that back when they were there, it wasn't on cement where we built the midway, it was gravel and so picking like, like trying to sweep up, like if there was garbage or trash, or like the wind would blow, it would just getting it out of the pea gravel was a challenge. And so like. But the city came in really nicely, redid that park. What I want to say 10 years ago now?
Speaker 4:Yeah, well, it was. It's about 14 because it was the first year we started. I think was the first year we weren't on gravel anymore. Okay. But I remember taking my kids with a stroller and it's like you know you can't go anywhere. Gravel, you don't get very far.
Speaker 2:Right. So you know, and honestly, the city partners with us. So it is a, it's a city park, and then the house is a historic part for the city, and so we have an agreement for the house and then we have a separate like special event permit for the park. So, but the city has been really awesome with working with us in the past and I know that as they saw that we were opening, they go out and they do a bunch of maintenance for us and making it look nice, yeah, so it's been a really nice partnership.
Speaker 2:And in turn, sometimes like the city is one of our grant recipients.
Speaker 1:And so some of the things like.
Speaker 2:The train that we drove in the fourth of July was a gift from candlelighters to them as part of what we do as fundraising.
Speaker 3:That's cool yeah.
Speaker 4:And some of us. We did a park installation. We did the original band, the band. What was the band? Show where the concerts in the park are now the original candlelighter band. They've since replaced it.
Speaker 2:I like the new one too.
Speaker 4:Yeah, new one is much bigger. Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 2:But it's mostly. I mean, it started out as a fundraising organization and that's kind of like as much as we like to scare and as much as we like to decorate spooky things, and we are super into the spiders and the bats and everything. We are definitely 100% into supporting the local community.
Speaker 3:That's cool and I'll bond on profit.
Speaker 3:We'll be right back. You can hear the rest of this conversation in just a moment. If you're on the hunt for a realtor who will go above and beyond for you, look no further than Jennifer Petracelli at Petracelli Homes Realty Group. Jennifer is not just an expert in her field of real estate, but she's also super approachable and friendly. She makes the entire process of buying and selling your home easy and enjoyable. So if you're looking for a realtor who knows what they're doing and who genuinely cares about your needs and wants, give Jennifer Petracelli a call.
Speaker 3:I want to tell you about Milk and Honey Cafe. They serve fresh noodles, stir fries, bentos soup, vegetarian dishes, boba drinks and so much more. They're a family owned restaurant located on Fremont Boulevard in North Fremont. You can find out how to dine in or order at milkandhoneyfremontcom and for Fremont podcast listeners, if you make a purchase of $50 or more, you get a complimentary Thai tea or a fruit tea with your purchase. If you want to hear more of their story, check out episode eight on the Fremont podcast. For more information and links, be sure to check out our show notes. So originally it was to raise funds for a YMCA and then you said perhaps, maybe the second year they didn't have enough money, so they were still helping out, or maybe they were like. Someone else was like hey, you helped us with that.
Speaker 2:We have a list of people that have been recipients but because I think it's every three years, people can come back. Some of the groups, like HerzBres Cancer and the. Senior Center, and sometimes they change names as the organizations go, and so it's hard for us to pinpoint exactly. It's never just one organization anymore we're donating to. I think there's nine.
Speaker 3:Wow, so you mentioned Herz. What are some of the other organizations that you have?
Speaker 4:This year. What are?
Speaker 2:There is an organization that works out of Kennedy High School but it's not through the high school. He does an after school for free rest and clinic, for I mean, the little list is five all the way through high school and they compete in local organizations and it's definitely a community like teamwork membership. There's a debate team out of Union City Same thing. Definitely. The weird part about candlelighters is we're never, ever giving money, so we are not a cash run organization. When we gift things, we get you hard assets that we need.
Speaker 2:So refrigerators, mattresses, chairs like the breast cancer chairs were the ones that you can get out of without having someone pull on your arms, which were important. The clothing for the debate team, things that they can reuse, you're after there. I think for wrestling team, it's mats. I think for Centerville the league, it's. The lawnmowers Over at Palmdale Estates is a park that's open to the public and they asked for a bike rack and two benches, because their benches are unstable for some of the people that want to sit there. It's very much hard assets.
Speaker 3:That's great. So people can actually look at it and say this particular item or these particular features are things that were given to us by the candlelighters. That's great.
Speaker 4:We did the original seed money for Aqua Adventure water park. So one of the slides there black and orange one is the candlelighter slide.
Speaker 3:That's cool yeah.
Speaker 4:So we did that, and we did one this past year for the nursery school the Fremont Nursery School.
Speaker 1:So we did the nursery perlla for where they eat and play.
Speaker 2:That's a fun exposure thing, but yeah and some of the rules are they can't go to just one school or just one organization. It has to be multi-use for the community.
Speaker 3:Okay okay, that's cool, that's cool. So I'm going to pause there for a second because I, jeff, I want to get to know you for a second. So let's talk about you for a minute and then we'll get back to candlelighters. So, jeff, you and I were talking before we started recording. We've been in Fremont since the 1972. 1972. Okay, yeah, but you're from the Bay area.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I grew up over South San Francisco, San Mateo.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 4:And then we moved across the Bay to Fremont when nobody over there knew what a Fremont was, so it was not a lot here at that time. We were sort of just at the beginning of the big folks moving here.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay, excellent. And then I have your card here and I'm trying to figure out what your main thing in life is.
Speaker 4:Well, me too yeah.
Speaker 1:My day job.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so yeah, Is this you? That's me. Okay, all right.
Speaker 4:So I'm a cartoonist.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 4:A graphic artist, cartoonist and used to work for the local newspapers and now I work for. It's a newspaper page, an online page for kids called.
Speaker 1:Kids. Scoop and it's in the.
Speaker 4:Tri-City Voice here locally, okay, and I've been doing that since 1999. Wow, so 20, 25 years.
Speaker 3:So, if I can ask like was there a particular inspiration for you to get started in that where you was, it just art was an interest to you? Or was it like comics interest to you? Or is I love the fact I grew up watching Charlie Brown and Charles Stoltz I know is from this area, yep, is any of those inspiring for you?
Speaker 4:Yeah, he was a huge inspiration to me as a kid. Everything Disney and Charles Stoltz, that was pretty much I didn't really do. The Marvel heroes and all that. I liked Batman on TV, but not really the comics, more of the funny stuff you know, hannah Barbera, things like that Thought I wanted to go into animation. Until I tried it a little bit, you know, just making flip books and I definitely don't want to go into animation Too much work. But I did so I just kept drawing and just kept at it.
Speaker 4:That's awesome and went into it as a career eventually. That's really cool I did get to be the cartoonist in residence for a couple of times up at the Schultz Museum. No way.
Speaker 3:Up in San Rosa, which was really cool Wow. It was like a dream come true.
Speaker 4:Wow, I actually talked to on the phone. Or if we met in person the real Linus?
Speaker 1:There was actually a Linus who was a cartoonist.
Speaker 4:There was a real live Linus, a friend of Charles Stoltz, and he used his name in the strip. Wow Did not have a blanket when I talked to him, but he was a cartoonist, super nice guy. He grew out of his blanket. He grew out of his blanket. I don't think he ever had a blanket, but he got the name anyway. That is really cool. That's so cool yeah.
Speaker 2:He does all of our art, logos and stuff. He did the children's menu here at the restaurant.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, I don't know if you've seen both of those.
Speaker 2:No, it's got the little maze and the.
Speaker 1:I find the matching one.
Speaker 2:I have a football one, a baseball one. I feel like I'm pretty well established and you're so busy. I was like yeah, but thank you, they're amazing, that's cool. And the logo work. You did that voodoo on the bayou. My daughter does a lot of graphic art. She kind of likes to play with, like the iPad, art and stuff and she's like I need you to make this black and white for me and take all this stuff out. She's like this is actually good, Thank you.
Speaker 4:No, it's pretty professional. She's like I couldn't do that. That's cool.
Speaker 2:Lots of practice, though.
Speaker 3:It goes into that.
Speaker 2:But no, he came to our elementary school and as one of the speakers for like the career day, so it was really nice.
Speaker 3:That's awesome, thank you, wow. Well, I'm privileged to meet you then. That's so cool. So, apart from that, you also are the president of the Niles Rotary Club. Is that right? Yeah, and how long have you done that?
Speaker 4:Being president in July and it goes till June 30th when they kicked me out. So they do. They have a big demotion and big party and they give you a rose chair. And they have a lot of material for it. This is going to be an easy assignment that I can stop now, and they've got it an evening easy.
Speaker 3:Are you part of that? That is all I'm not. I've always wanted to. I've always wanted to join.
Speaker 1:Rotary, I just always thought that the service they do I know honestly right. You should be recruiting right here with Ricky Yep. Well, we'll see what happens.
Speaker 3:They do a lot of amazing things in the community. That's cool, that's very cool. Is there anything else that you do? I mean, that's not enough. No, not enough. I'm just saying, oh yeah, he's the best grandpa ever.
Speaker 1:He's the best grandpa ever.
Speaker 4:There you go, there you go. Add his kid's drop on. Awesome, very good Kids. Yep, yeah, that's great, that's cool.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you for sharing a little bit of that with me. I'm looking forward to getting to know you more over the years.
Speaker 3:Hopefully that'd be really cool. Recently, my family was trying to figure out what we were going to do for dinner. We wanted a place where we were going to be served good food, we were going to be treated well and we wanted a good atmosphere. So we decided to go to Billy Roy's Burgers. Not only does Billy Roy's have the best burgers in town, but they've also got great salads, They've got great sandwiches and they've got great desserts. The service was efficient and friendly and, to top it all off, it's the beginning of football season and Billy Roy's has more than adequate screens to watch your game. If you're interested in watching football at Billy Roy's, you won't miss a play. If you're looking for a place to enjoy good food and good service, I recommend Billy Roy's Burgers on Thornton Avenue. I want to hear about the spooky part of everything.
Speaker 3:So so they went all out first year and brought in movie stars and everything and all that stuff. So I'm I'm embarrassed, I'm asking you guys about this. I've not been. I have not been to one of the the how the events. I'm gonna have to go this year, yeah, but so tell me about it. It's something you you had said earlier that there's a different theme each year, so you guys come up with something new to go with. What kind of themes are we talking about?
Speaker 4:well, this year's voodoo on the bayou. Okay, we've done gosh haunted campgrounds, we've done haunted castles, we did the other web which was all spiders, which just the sign scared enough people off, just that. And and you know. So there's all these themes and and you go through the ghost house. You have two ways to go through. You can go through the scary line or the good fairy line. We offer good fairies. So if you're it for the, for little kids or anybody who's nervous which would be me if I weren't building it you can go through the good fairy and the ghouls don't jump out and scare okay and then you go through scary of course, and then you're on your own.
Speaker 4:Okay, ghouls jump, okay, and our ghouls are all high school, junior high high school kids okay, ghouls are almost always from the middle school and a little bit of the first second.
Speaker 2:Once you get to be 16, you can definitely be a good fairy okay more often work in the game areas and things like that the older they are. They kind of do that, but it's just another way to get back to community that's a community service hours.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, that's awesome that's all you said you have about a hundred volunteers, that including that's just members, so that's just members that are involved and then you can volunteer other teenagers that are giving service hours are added on to that we're in that.
Speaker 4:We're now, we're in the hundreds probably every year, and we're super lucky like adult volunteers, come as well.
Speaker 2:You don't have to be a member to participate if you wanted to come down and help us build it. You have our interest in painting or mural stuff. A lot of people that like to make costumes or are really interested in makeup come. Only once a year come and do makeup for people and then they just take a couple shifts and things like that. So it is just a super fun kind of.
Speaker 2:It has a little bit of something, I think, for everybody so you don't have to swing a hammer to come and help us build it. There's a lot of sorting and cleaning and we have bins of bats and things that need to get distributed out and then gathered back in at the end there's there's people that are out in the community looking for donations right now and getting things together.
Speaker 2:There are people who actively build very spooky things in their garage all year long and then transport them in for this so and there's always people out there looking for donations and ways to help support what we do like. I don't remember which one it was. We had, like a lab one, the bubbling beakers yeah, yeah, in charge of the main room.
Speaker 4:That, yeah, we got, yeah, the Stanford Research Institute. One of our long-time members were there and they had a whole container thing that they were getting rid of this old, you know lab equipment and things. It looked. You know all stuff you'd see in. You know the original Frankenstein, you know big, you know beakers and big glass balls and all this stuff and we were able to bring it in and we've, you know, using black light and things and you know fish tank bubbleers and all that. We created this whole lab, you know wow, the scariest thing honestly.
Speaker 4:You know you need to become a volunteer because the scariest thing is at night, when you shut everything down. Oh, I bet so you. The music is off, the sound effects are off, the lights are off as you go through to lock up, so it's just you and your flashlight and you're walking past all these things. You've seen and you know it's not yeah, yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know some of the very battery-op stuff kind of like well yeah, like switch to life yeah, we kind of have a loose theme this year and it was kind of based on kind of like New Orleans and so kind of a word, yeah, kind of rolling a thing, but we've done the the dark shadows, based on something very specific, and then last year it was just witches through time. So different witches in different time periods. That's cool you know because yeah some people really like the witch aspect.
Speaker 2:I had a cat theme, like we. It was a black cat hidden in every room that's right around and poke this year.
Speaker 4:I think it's a lot which was great for the, for the little kids that it's. It's kind of fun to watch. Every year. It's kind of a rite of passage where you see kids that have always gone through the good fairy line okay, this year they're gonna go in the scary line, but they're never like really ready. It's always a little so they're nervous. And to tell them you know, okay, we've hidden the cat in every room, you got to try to find it. It takes their focus off of the other.
Speaker 3:That's great, so they can go great, yeah, so okay. So you just said something that caught my attention that I think you just assumed I knew, knew and I didn't, and I need to clarify for anybody that's listening.
Speaker 2:The fairy line okay, and it's like the bunny hill of the spooky, definitely, definitely, definitely the best part is anybody that would like be there, we, the one of the reasons we put the kids in the houses is for safety reasons. Okay, dress the kids up full makeup, full costume, with the theme and we put them at the exits and with flashlights so in the event that, and we had to get out. So that's always something that people ask about gonna be safe in there, of course okay following the rules there.
Speaker 2:But they also will say, boom, they have a scripted line and that's what they're supposed to do. But it jump scares arm for everyone and we appreciate that and so what they all do when you say, you know, good fairy, don't be scary. And then all the kids just meet with their God happy Halloween and that's like give high fives to little kids as they go by. The good fairies in the last three years have had glowing lighted wings okay, you can't lose your good fairy.
Speaker 2:It's very feels, very safe and definitely it's a very much a stroller type event, but there are grown adults all so many would always do the good fairy. They just want to see what's in there.
Speaker 3:They super do not want to be so the way this works is that a child will have a good fairy walk with them, and so when they see the fairy coming, like they kind of announce it, they say, very good fairy scary everybody knows, yeah, that you'll stay back sometimes there's little switches.
Speaker 2:If we have something, okay, animatronic or something to the good fairy, off one year, we had that, we had pneumatic spider, and I want to just I mean when I say spider I mean like four by four table- size spider and it would jump out on an arm. I mean we, you, you have to come yeah, you gotta, yeah, I think yeah, laser stuff in there last year, I mean yeah, but when things like that are gonna jump out, there's a switch. We can you must always turn it off.
Speaker 2:Yeah the good fairy line and it's a separate line yeah, okay, okay people go through, and usually we send people through with their own group. It's not like you're just in the line with other people. You get your opportunity to be alone but then when you? Get to the good. When the good fairies go through, it's like a, it's like a training. We keep everybody safe and that's a.
Speaker 4:That's a pro tip on a Saturday night, if you want. If you see a giant line and you don't want to wait in the giant line, go with the good fairy line you'll still see everything like the fast pass yeah. I always say it's a judgment-free zone. We don't give anybody a hard time for going through the good fairy, because I would go through the yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I like to scare people.
Speaker 4:I don't like to get scared.
Speaker 3:So you talk about things and obviously there's no way that these things can be created from scratch every year. So how much of what you do each year is something that's carried over from previous years that you have in storage, and how much of it you think is brand new?
Speaker 2:So you go into the actual carriage house, that's what we call our main room and then we attach two trailers to it in the back so you're going to go through ten other rooms. The room structure in the trailers is always the same the main room. You can move the walls. But, I would say we like from scratch those rooms go back to straight black for the most part.
Speaker 4:Wow we strike everything at the end and it's gone.
Speaker 2:Everything in there is new, so you never see the same house twice, or even a repeat of the same thing. But I mean it's hard. I think that theme helps us with that too. We did that one clown one. Oh, I don't like it, but that was a whole different setup than we've done in the past. We changed how everything goes. I think the weirdest one for me was the scary land, which was kind of a play on Disneyland, and we had different rides. But they made a giant roller coaster like piece in the main room.
Speaker 4:We had a Matterhorn bobsled we called it the Splatterhorn. Of course we had a Yeti that jumped out at you.
Speaker 2:I think the kid in that room sat up from the bobsled. Yeah, he was in the bobsled with a skeleton and he would pop up and down.
Speaker 4:So, it was a lot of fun Every year. Basically, we reuse props, of course. Sure, sure, sure we have a bunch of props. People are always donating stuff, which is great. So it becomes what do you keep, what do you not keep?
Speaker 2:And that's always a battle, and we have a hard time with that too, because one year we did Haunted Cruise Ship. That was fun. I liked that, and the boiler room was the freakiest one of all, but it was like the different rooms. And then we did Haunted House Party and I was like I'm going to make my room a bathroom. And everyone was like what? And I'm like, yeah. And so people donated, like a full toilet and actual sink.
Speaker 1:I didn't know that was your room.
Speaker 4:That was a good room. That was a good room.
Speaker 1:I went completely rogue.
Speaker 2:I don't know that it was. It went with the house.
Speaker 4:And you had the little ghoul that popped up out of the bowl right yeah, the hand yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, we do think, but everybody is so creative. I think that's kind of. My favorite part is that even candlelighters don't all know what's going on in everybody's room. And there's always, firstly, lots of little Easter eggs, of things that you'll see motif through, because we'll be like, and all of our rooms are going to have it.
Speaker 1:So it's always fun to kind of see the tie-in.
Speaker 2:But for me I don't actually get to see it full done, even doing sight where we're in there, a lot by ourselves, like closing it all down because we're the keeper of the keys that lock it all up. But I'm always surprised, like to go through it in. The line is so different than to see everything on and operating, and I would you know some of those rooms have stuff that, unless the electricity is on, you would never even see it.
Speaker 4:And yeah, it's really like.
Speaker 1:Ursula last year.
Speaker 2:I mean that was a whole different room, with the effects going on and we have new effects.
Speaker 3:this year that's awesome, we have all new lighting this year.
Speaker 2:We try to upgrade a little bit every time.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, if you have people building stuff in their garage all year and then bringing stuff in, I mean I can only imagine the kind of features and the works that people put together to make this happen. I mean this is an all-in sort of thing.
Speaker 2:This is amazing. We take our scaring very seriously.
Speaker 3:I think there's some people and I don't know if it's just candlelighter or candlelighter alumni but I think that there are people in Fremont that just take Halloween seriously, because there's some houses that are like completely.
Speaker 2:It's become huge. You've did a lot of outreach in the last couple years. He's been the person that's been like our Facebook presence and a lot of the outreach stuff and some of the new people coming in are from a couple different organizations. That.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there are folks that have been doing their home haunts and things like that and would say, come and do it here for a bigger audience and they still do their home haunts.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, they do that.
Speaker 4:That's cool, and since we're not open Halloween, they get to do their home haunts still.
Speaker 3:That's cool.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I forget, there's organizations of ghost houses.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's Northern California Haunted Attractions. They're on Facebook. They've been great to us. They published this huge calendar of all the haunts that are going on in Northern California. Aaron Hartman is his name. He's great.
Speaker 3:Now you said something before we started recording. You said something about this particular haunt being significant in Northern California. What is that stat?
Speaker 4:Yeah, we learned from them. So we are the longest running haunt in Northern California, which was amazing to find out. And so many of the other haunts in the area got there. They were little kids that came through us.
Speaker 3:They were inspired by this so.
Speaker 4:I always consider us we're sort of the haunt with training wheels. People come in, we're scary, but not that scary. We're not the ones that you're going to need to call the cardiologist after. Necessarily it's a little more, a little easier, but plenty scary.
Speaker 2:Family friendly Family friendly.
Speaker 3:That's great. How many people do you see each year? What is the numbers? Do you have any recollection of any of that?
Speaker 2:We're getting better at keeping that kind of data, but because up until last year we were a cash only event.
Speaker 4:Really I know.
Speaker 2:So for that reason it's hard to paper count all the things but now that we have some electronic stuff and we are taking cards and we continue to do so, we can definitely track a little bit better. But I think admission numbers is something that we really are collective.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, when I drive by, it's just lines of people out there. So I mean I don't know how many, how to equate what's.
Speaker 2:But from a distance perspective. When it was COVID, we weren't able to open and we advertised that we were going to have some caramel apples and we were going to sell them basically on the corner drive through style, just to kind of like you know, remind people we still existed was kind of our outreach goal and kind of just like there are people who are like, but my apple and I was like, yeah, we can make that happen.
Speaker 2:And then the city asked us the next year to participate with the Chamber of Commerce and we did it over at the New Street Eats.
Speaker 4:Okay, yeah, the first year was the Elks Lodge.
Speaker 2:The Elks Lodge that's right.
Speaker 4:We set up and used their facilities to make them, and we did it over a few weekends, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then the city let us use the Aqua Adventure commercial kitchen, which was lovely.
Speaker 1:That's great.
Speaker 2:And then we brought it all over there and we were like okay, we advertised, we told people we were coming, and I think we made like 500. Yeah, a lot of apples, and we said we weren't going to start selling them until five o'clock. To be fair to everybody, we had a chance to come and get mine, in case you know whatever, and we sold out I want to say 10 minutes and we had to limit everybody for our family.
Speaker 3:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 4:I was driving over with all these apples and I'm thinking what are we going to do if nobody shows up?
Speaker 2:We were thinking what are we going to do?
Speaker 4:if nobody shows up.
Speaker 2:That was my big thought too. We're going to have so many apples left over. Who's going to eat all these?
Speaker 4:apples. We couldn't get them out of the car fast enough, and then they were gone.
Speaker 2:And we still hear about how we didn't have enough and we cooked for like hours and hours, and hours. I mean, but during one more open, we set up our own kitchen there and we make them on the spot. So we're making them and selling them at the same time. And we kind of can keep up with need that way. I've been on the go pick up the apples from the grocery store line and that's. I mean that's like six, seven cases of apples every two days, or something like that, Wow.
Speaker 4:The apples are hand dipped and they're sort of an attraction in themselves. Now we have people that come from across the bay, out of the bay area, every year, to tradition that's awesome To come and get one of the caramel apples.
Speaker 2:I don't think my kids would kill me if I didn't bring them home at least one time.
Speaker 2:Everybody's in the blinds out your, can, you grow up with it and you're like but there's camp, but everything else. It's funny because, like you said, it's kind of got like, if you like, cooking for people or you see the joy in people coming in and making caramel apples and just seeing everybody's little sunshiney face when they get their apples, that's a joy. Oh yeah, definitely. There's the ladies that work in the photo booth and we have a tradition where we'll let you know a little backdrop and you can put on funny glasses and take a family photo and we'll put it in a little key chain, I think you can get it as a buy Key chain or a pen.
Speaker 2:And there are families that have like 50 of them. They have their, their collection and spanning out, and so it's one of those things that, like we might get lynched if we said we weren't going to do it and there are people who are very dedicated to it and there's people who love doing it and love seeing that family aspect.
Speaker 2:And then the face painting people just love when the little kids come in and ask for a spider and like, want to walk around, and if you love playing with kids and the ring toss is super fun with little kids and so there's as a volunteer. There's so much different that you can do. And you know there's. It's kind of a neat organization for that too. And a lot of times when you volunteer, everybody does the same thing, and here it's like you can be doing something completely different than another volunteer and still be so valuable to us. So that's cool.
Speaker 4:And it's, all you know, super affordable. The prices are really low and I think it's it's five dollars to get in oh, that's great. And then it's and then the games are. What is it? It's about a buck, I think.
Speaker 2:I think it's like we said six tickets for five dollars is kind of how we're kind of rolling it. And yeah, and the games, they come with little prizes.
Speaker 3:If you don't win, you get something.
Speaker 2:And honestly it's kind of we call it the midway. If you've ever worked at like I work at Great America you work at Great America and they have that midway where the games live anyway, and so it is kind of fun, especially for families who only some of you guys want to go and get scared the other half just gonna sit out and wait for you to get them out of there and you're in the line, and so it gives other you know the little kids something to do.
Speaker 2:We have school nights, so that's probably important to mention. Also, all the local elementary schools can pick a night to have it be like their night. We dress up and put full makeup on two of their staff members.
Speaker 1:That's cool, usually the principal or one other teacher.
Speaker 2:I originally did it as a teacher. That's my first time back in the back was from doing that, and that was the year I became a candlelighter. So, I was a teacher that year and they dressed me up. And then you walk out and people go here, hold my three month old baby for this picture and you're like, oh sure, I'll do that. And you, like your own students, come up and they're like you can tell they're good they know you, they're not sure and you can say things like Hello Jason.
Speaker 4:They never recognize the teacher or the principal. Super fun. I love that. That's great Slowly dawns on them.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, wait, wait, wait. And the next day were you at the ghost house. No, I was the house, but you know what I?
Speaker 3:mean that's awesome.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think it's a yeah, we've got a popcorn booth, a fresh popcorn. We have a food booth, so you know, you can spend.
Speaker 3:How have I missed out on all of this for nine years? I guess the one that was to be nine years, so I missed it, yeah.
Speaker 4:Small footprint and no advertising budget.
Speaker 3:Well, maybe you know, hopefully people will listen to this and find an opportunity to get out there. So currently there's fundraising going on. You mentioned that people are building stuff in their garage to have displayed at this. When do you? When are you on site?
Speaker 4:So, starting actually as we record this, tomorrow we begin tomorrow. We're there every Saturday from eight to noon, so you know we welcome people to come down and help, we provide lunch afterwards and you know if you like building stuff, you know donuts and coffee. And it's so. We do that for five weeks, six weeks four or five.
Speaker 2:It depends on how some things take longer than others. Last year we did it in three and I have no idea how I don't know what happened.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was it was a miracle the first week we just had a ton of people show up, so we were way out of schedule somehow. Right, that never happens.
Speaker 2:And honestly, please, please, come out, like you don't have to sign up to come out and volunteer if you want to paint as an adult Kids. We have to cap it with a ratio. So if enough adults stay, then we can have more kids. But with the members that we currently have, if you just want to drop your kid off, we'll definitely give them community service hours, but we can take only 20. And that is hard I hate to cut that line, but if we can't have more than 20 unsupervised under 18, year olds.
Speaker 2:But, if, but. A lot of times the parent was like well, I can stay too, and I'm all sure. And then becomes a family thing, that's great.
Speaker 1:And we've got a lot of volunteers.
Speaker 2:The last couple of years that were like I like doing that, and then they come back the next year Like that was fun, let's do that one again.
Speaker 3:Family tradition or something yeah.
Speaker 2:And then, soon enough, they all become. We always hope that's how we get that. That's awesome, that's awesome.
Speaker 3:And then this year it opens on Friday the 13th, which is super cool.
Speaker 4:Just like just work in your mind.
Speaker 2:And ironically well, not ironically, just blessedly, I guess it's a day off for FUSD students which is really strange, that is just happened that the last two years, when they changed the calendar and they moved it up into August, when we start the school calendar happens to have a teacher work day that a lot of schools elect to do in the summertime, and do the extra day in the summer and so, gloriously, I have a day off of school and so does every student in. Cremont Unified on Friday the 13th.
Speaker 1:So we're hoping they come out. That's cool.
Speaker 2:I hope they come out and kind of like show us a little love in the Halloween department and start thinking about talking. Spice everything and get your sweater on. Hopefully it's not a thousand degrees.
Speaker 4:We do a kid's costume parade. Okay, which is? I forgot the date. This year it's on a Saturday. Hold up, but we always do that and there's prizes for different age levels.
Speaker 3:And we have a costume parade, costume parade, we parade around the grounds Costume parade is October 21st.
Speaker 2:We also do a lights on tour. If you are a like the Good Fairy will not help me, or you just really like the behind the scenes look?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 2:We'll turn the lights on and we'll give you the full tour as a thing. I think it's the same day as the kiddie parade from two to three. Yeah, right before we open to the public. We people run through.
Speaker 4:So if you have real little ones, babies, things like that that you know are going to not like being in the dark.
Speaker 2:You want to see, but you want to carry your infant. Yeah.
Speaker 4:And if you're just interested in how it all works, it's kind of cool If you want to see the pneumatic.
Speaker 3:Maybe I'll come do a behind the scenes tour with you guys. Yeah, it would be so fun. It would be super cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're definitely always happy to show people what we've got going on.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean you put so much work into it. It's like you know, when you spend so much time on it and you know, and it is, it is worth it when everyone goes through and they have that experience. But I think that you, like, I've worked so I used to do theater years ago and so I'd spend a lot of time on a particular piece, a set piece, you know, and it was used in one moment in a particular show and it's just like you know, you don't know everything that went into making that actually do what you wanted it to do in that moment. And so, like you kind of take pride in being able to have the creativity to come up with something like that and then be able to actually do what you wanted it to do. So I mean, for me it was like, yeah, come take a look at this. So you know.
Speaker 2:I just like I want you to do. A room is one of my favorite parts.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I do not get to do a room this year I do. Right.
Speaker 4:And that's where you're the president.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but no, I got to pick the theme, so I feel like honored in that way. But like Jeff has been in the past in charge of the main room, and that big first look is super like. I think that's really rewarding to have everyone come in. You hear that first scream.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Sorry, that's the best part.
Speaker 4:That's cool.
Speaker 2:But yeah.
Speaker 4:I like the screams and my favorite part is to stand at the exit ramp and when people are coming out and they're laughing and you jump. No, I didn't, you know, it's kind of fun to see, Not to give you more work Jeff.
Speaker 3:But I'm just imagining another thing that people could take away if you had, like a small comic book of each of the rooms and that you wrote oh my gosh. And that you actually did a comic book that people could purchase after they left and that would remind them of that year, that theme of that year, and be kind of cool.
Speaker 4:It would be A little coloring too.
Speaker 3:There you go. I'll just say it will be.
Speaker 4:Somebody will do that someday, down from look into sheets and maybe very loosely, there you go.
Speaker 1:Loosely, loosely done.
Speaker 4:But yeah, I think honestly it's just been really great. It's a very rewarding thing and my wife and I spend time together doing it. It's great, it's just great.
Speaker 3:Well, for me it's just been a name that I've heard vote around Fremont, and then I've seen them in the Fourth of July parade. I've not been to the house, so that's going to have to change, change up this year. We'll have to make that happen. So, and I want to encourage anybody else, yeah, if you are in the Fremont community or in the surrounding area and you've not come out to this, what a great thing to enjoy this year. And you guys obviously love what you do and it's a big, big thing and you pour a lot into it. So I think it'd be a shame for people to miss out on that. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Is there anything else that we need?
Speaker 3:to know yeah, I mean anything else. I mean I don't want to miss anything.
Speaker 2:I know I keep kind of like I'm thinking. I think one of the things that people find surprising when you're not from here is that we aren't open on Halloween.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you mentioned it earlier.
Speaker 2:But maybe that's like a good drive home because I know some people that'll drive out from Manteca or wherever with their families to get scared, but we're home with our own families on Halloween and it's kind of a thing that we do to guarantee our volunteers and also we're not trying to rope you in so you can't do your scare at home, okay, so yeah, that not being open on Halloween kind of makes sense.
Speaker 4:Yeah, A lot of schools and churches will do things at night so we just sort of it works for everyone if we're not doing this.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's cool. Well, Trisha, Jeff, thank you guys so much for joining me on the podcast. I hope that a lot of people hear about this and are able to get out there and enjoy it this year. I appreciate all the work that you do.
Speaker 4:Thank you, yeah, thanks for having us, absolutely All right. Happy Halloween.
Speaker 1:This episode was hosted and produced by Ricky B scheduling and pre-interviews by Sarah S. Rachel Prey is the print editor in charge of our newsletter. I'm Gary Williams. Andrew Kovett is the editor. Music provided by soundstripecom Be sure to subscribe wherever it is that you listen so you don't miss an episode. You can find everything we make the podcast, our newsletter and all of our social media links at thefremontpodcastcom. Join us next week on the Fremont podcast.
Speaker 3:I have this toy that's in my garage. I have a one-year-old and I have this toy in my garage. I don't know what kind of sensors the creators of this toy put in there, but it doesn't even have to just be touched. I don't even know. I will go in my garage at night and all of a sudden it'll like ha ha, welcome to it.
Speaker 2:I'm like what is going on. That would make an excellent theme like possessed toys.
Speaker 4:A toy room. It's actually one of the absolute fears that I have. All right, call everybody up. We're not doing Voodoo in the body. Oh yeah, let's turn that one off. No, I got to pick the theme this year you can do Toy Gory.
Speaker 2:You said a Toy Story. Oh, I like it, that's good. All right, I love that actually. See, you got the idea right away. Toy Gory, all right.
Speaker 3:So this is a Muggins Media podcast. We're going to hit it off. Ooh wait, Let me see. Get the audio off now Select everything. Okay, ZzZzoo klandesa, contact me here. Wiwi, Both are TWSius, Okay, All right. Okay, we don't need to troll the queue in any case. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:I like the idea of it. Just say yeah and you can really take it out on us and really heart to heart and thank you for all you guys.
Speaker 2:That shirt is so gooSEy. Hello, how's it going, twsius? How are you guys feeling? All right, all right? We said hi, yeah, all right. Oh, we had this region right and they started to do good things, since we were doing the Barsqii abortion project.